The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-17

their demoralized finances. Every man
who voted for the Ives pool bill has ON
his ands and forehead the blood Of these
souls.
But in this connection some young con-
verts say to me: SIS it right to play
cards? Is there any harm in a game of
whist or euchre?" Well, I know good
men who play whist and euchre and
other styles of games without any wag-
ers. I had friend who played cards
with his wife and children, and then at
the close said: "Come, now, let US have
prayers" I will not judge other mems.
consciences, but will tell you that cards
| are in my mind 50 associated with the
! temporal and eternal damnation of
| splendid young msn, that | should no
sooner say to my family, "Come.
| let us have game of cards."
than would go into menagerie and say:
"Come, let us have game of rattle
snakes" or into cemetery, and, sitting
down by a marble slab, say to the grave
diggers: "Come, let US have game of
skulls" conscientious young ladies are
silently saying to me while l speak: "Do
you think card-playing will do US any
| Earm?" Perhaps not; but how will you
feel if in the great day of eternity, when
| we are asked to give an account of
our influence, some man shall say to you:
| II was introduced to games of chance in
the year 1887, in Brooklyn, at your house.
and went on from that sport to some-
thing more exciting, and went on down
| until l lost my business, and lost my
morals and lost my soul, and these chains
that you see on my wrists and feet are the
chains of a gamester's doom, and l am on
my way to a gamblers hell" Honey at
the start-eternal catastrophe at the last.
Stock gambling comes into the same
catalogue. 1t must be very exhilarating
to go into Wall street, New York, or State
street, Boston, or Third street, Philadel-
phia, and depositing a small sum of
money, run thu risk of taking out fort
une. Many men are doing an honest and
safe business in the stock market, and you
are an ignoramus if you do not know that
it is just as legitimate to deal in stocks as
to deal in coffee, CT sugar, or flour. But
nearly all the outsiders who go there on a
little financial excursion lose all. Ths old
spiders eat up the unsuspecting flies. l
had friend who put his hand on his hip
!; pocket and said to me in substances: 81
; have there the value of $1oo,o00." His
home is to-day penniless. What
was the matter? Wall street.
|
lied you hear not one word. One great
stock firm goes down and whole columns
of newspapers discuss their fraud, or their
| disaster. and we are presented with their
= features and their biography. But where
one such famous firm sinks, five hundred
1 unknown men sink with them. The great
/ steamer goes down and all the little
> boats are swallowed in the same engulf-
ment.
Gambling is gambling, whether in stocks
, or breadstuffs, or dice, or race-track bet
| ting. Exhilaration at the start, and a
/ raving brain, and shattered nervous
system. and a sacrificed property, and a
, destroyed soul at the last. Young man,
buy no lottery tickets, purchase no prize
, packages, bet on no base ball games OF
yacht racing, have no faith in luck, an
r swer no mysterious circulars proposing
great income for small investment, shoe
away the buzzards that hover around our
, hotels trying to entrap strangers. Go out
and make an honest living. Have God on
5 your side and be candidate for heaven
Y Remember all the paths of sin are banked
Y | with flowers at the start, and there are
A plenty of helpful hands to fetch the gay
| charger to your door and hold the stirrur
n while you mount. But further on the
n horse plunges to the bit in a slough mex
a tricable. The best honey is not like tha
n which Jonathan took on the end of ths
rod and brought to his lip, but that which
d God puts on the banqueting table o
g mercy at which we are all invited to sit
d / was reading of boy among the noun
y talns of Switzerland ascending q danger
# Gus place with his father and the guides
}, The boy stepped on the edge of the cliff
ic I r,
a get"
}, "Come away from there" said th,
d father, "you will fall off,"
sNo," said he, eI must get that beautiful
) flower" and the guides rushed toward hin
. to pull him back, when they heard hin
9 say, 81 almost have it," and he fell two
d thousand. Sect.
: Birds ST prey were seen few day.
IS after circling through the air and lower
d ing gradually to the place where the corps
& lay.
l. Why seek flowers off the edge of prec
Q ipice when you may walk knee deep annie
J. the full blooms of the very paradise o
d God? When man may sit at king.
o banquet, why will he go down the step
" and contend for the gristle and bones of
l. hounds kennel? "Sweeter than hone,
d and the honeycomb," says David
II sis the truth OF Col" "With honey on
8 of the rock would l have satisfied thee,
g says God to the recreant. Here is hone,
% gathered from the blossoms of trees 0
life, and with rod made out of the WOO,
% of the cross dip it up for all your souls
D. The poet Hesiod tells Of an AMBROSE
d aud a nectar the drinking of which woul
f make men live forever. and one sip of tbi
;e honey from the Eternal Rock will Civ
= you an immortal life with God. Come OF
N of the malarial levels of sinful life
l. Come and live on the uplands of grac
l. where the vineyards sun themselves. Oh
p taste and see that the Lord is gracious
4. Be happy now and happy forever. Fo
N those who take different course tn
Y honey will turn to gall.
,r For many things l have admired Perc
~ Shelley, the great English poet, but dt
le plore the fact that it was great sweet
d ness to him to dishonor God. The poer
,t "Queen Nab" has in it the maligning G
g the Deity. The infidel poet was impiou
enough to ask for Rowland HIPS Sure
70 Chapel that he might denounce the Chris
a tian religion. He was in great gle